SONY AND GLOWPOINT LAUNCH FREE, UNLIMITED USE IVE VIDEO PLUS VOICE SERVICE FOR CONSUMERS WORLDWIDE
New Service Introduces Telephone-Like Face-to-Face Video Plus Voice Features with Anytime/Anywhere Capability
PARK RIDGE, N.J, AND HILLSIDE, N.J., Nov. 16, 2005 - Breaching the final frontier in IP-based communications, Sony Electronics and GlowPoint will be offering a new consumer version of Sony's IVE ™ service, or Instant Video Everywhere, powered by GlowPoint, featuring free, unlimited video and voice service for consumers worldwide.
Unlike other Internet-based communications applications currently available, the IVE service seamlessly combines the best elements of standard "Voice Over IP" (VoIP) services with live video—resulting in VoIP Plus, the next generation of IP-based communications. The IVE application can be downloaded for free from www.sonyive.com.
With the IVE (pronounced `Ivy') service, consumers will no longer need to choose between traditional audio-only VoIP capabilities and desktop-based video communications. The IVE service offers a seamless experience that allows users to easily:
Place and receive free, unlimited video and voice calls worldwide with IVE user anytime, anywhere.
Place video and audio calls to cell phones, telephones, and any other traditional video or audio conferencing system.
Communicate face-to-face beyond the home or the office from any broadband enabled location or "hotspot" - including coffee shops, hotels, airports, college dorms, and many others.
Together, Sony and GlowPoint have already delivered millions of video usage minutes to thousands of users worldwide. The new IVE service now offers users the best of video and voice communications - including IVE "All You Can See and Say" Unlimited Calling Plans - shifting ear-to-ear conversations to face-to-face communications.
"With millions of Americans already using the Internet for voice-only communications, the demand already exists for something even better— the ability to talk online while seeing each other `face-to-face'," said David Trachtenberg, chief executive officer at GlowPoint. "By continuing to innovate with Sony we are bringing a seamless communications experience to people around the world."
With the IVE service, customers are no longer limited to talking only to other video users on the same proprietary service. The IVE service's patent-pending standards-based technology allows all IVE users to directly contact all other standards-based video users and even those who do not have video access or webcams. This solves the "islands of video" obstacle that currently restricts broader user adoption. Instead, the IVE service offers the ability to place free, unlimited `audio only' video calls to anyone anywhere in the world with no long distance charges or per call fees.
The IVE service replicates the traditional telephone experience, making IP-based video and voice communications as easy to use as placing a phone call. The basic IVE service's patent-pending features include:
Personal Video Numbers: IVE users each get their own personal video number with which they can easily place and receive video and audio calls.
Multi-Person Calling: Users can include up to six people in an audio or video conversation.
Video Call Mailbox: Video and voice callers can leave IVE users a video or voice message when they are not available. IVE users can also personalize their full-motion video outgoing messages.
Live Video Operators: Users have "one-click" access to a live video operator available for directory assistance, call transfer and more.
MyIVE User Portal - This allows real-time online call detail, access to video call mailbox messages, and more.
Lisa, the IVE Video Call Assistant: Lisa helps video calls that IVE user make go through.
IVE Video Portal - Instant access to previews of feature motion pictures, special promotions for new Sony products, IVE service updates, video customer service and more.
Translated into everyday applications, the IVE service means late-working or traveling parents can check in on their kids at home using real-time, high-quality video directly from their desktop. Grandparents and grandchildren living in different parts of the world can see and talk to each other. Online daters can see each other face-to-face before meeting in person. Online multi-player gamers can add full-motion video to communicate better between competitors and teammates. Teenagers can show each other what they are wearing to a big party and online poker players can literally "see" if someone is trying to bluff them or not.
"The launch of the IVE service as a free, unlimited use service is a communications watershed for consumers—an instantaneous, easy-to-use application that brings people together by literally putting them in the same room," said Eric Murphy, vice president for integrated visual communications at Sony Electronics. "The IVE service is the result of a shared vision projecting how video will continually evolve as an integral tool that people use to communicate in their daily lives."
The Sony IVE service, powered by GlowPoint, also offers rich, multi-function upgrades that are packaged into affordable flat-rate monthly services that range from less than $10 a month - or less than $0.35 a day - to $19.95 for advanced, professional grade users.
